Macrophysiology: A Conceptual Reunification

Abstract

Widespread recognition of the importance of biological studies at large spatial and temporal scales, particularly in the face of many of the most pressing issues facing humanity, has fueled the argument that there is a need to reinvigorate such studies in physiological ecology through the establishment of a macrophysiology. Following a period when the fields of ecology and physiological ecology had been regarded as largely synonymous, studies of this kind were relatively commonplace in the first half of the twentieth century. However, such large-scale work subsequently became rather scarce as physiological studies concentrated on the biochemical and molecular mechanisms underlying the capacities and tolerances of species. In some sense, macrophysiology is thus an attempt at a conceptual reunification. In this article, we provide a conceptual framework for the continued development of macrophysiology. We subdivide this framework into three major components: the establishment of macrophysiological patterns, determining the form of those patterns (the very general ways in which they are shaped), and understanding the mechanisms that give rise to them. We suggest ways in which each of these components could be developed usefully.

Deep-sea hydrothermal vent animals seek cool fluids in a highly variable thermal environment

“…To estimate the upper preferred temperature 26 , we measured the highest temperature selected by a species along a horizontal temperature gradient (Antarctic specimens: − 1.8 to 15 ° C, P. sulfi ncola : 10 -50 ° C, all other fauna: 2 -40 ° C). Th e gradient was maintained by cooling one end of an aluminium aquarium with a re-circulating water bath and heating the opposite end with an electric heating element 9 . Animals had unrestricted access along a slot 33 cm long × 1.0 cm wide × 1.5 cm high) in the gradient aquarium that was fi tted with a strip of mesh (0.5 mm Nitex, to provide a rough surface).…”

“…Many of the critical leaps in our understanding of how temperature regime shapes the thermal biology of ectotherms have been made by comparing the physiology and behaviours of animals along steep environmental gradients that represent extremes in thermal magnitude and variability over large (for example, latitudinal 8,9 and altitudinal gradients 10 ) and small spatial scales (for example, intertidal gradients 5,11 ). Hydrothermal vents create one of the most thermally variable habitats in which ectotherms live.…”

Pond Acidification May Explain Differences in Corticosterone among Salamander Populations

“…In addition, understanding the sublethal impacts of these environmental changes on physiological systems might help us predict the likely ecological outcome of future environmental changes (Gaston et al 2009;Buckley et al 2010).…”

Climate heterogeneity modulates impact of warming on tropical insects

“…Research in subsequent decades has provided considerable support for the assumptions and predictions behind this hypothesis. Tropical species generally have narrow tolerance ranges and acclimation capacities compared to temperate species (Ghalambor et al 2006, Gaston et al 2009, McCain 2009). An important consequence of this pattern is high climate change impacts projected for tropical ectotherms despite lower rates of climatic warming in the tropics , Angilletta 2009, Bonebrake and Mastrandrea 2010.…”